On August 31, 2009, The Walt
Disney Company announced a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment
for $4 billion in cash and stock.

History

Timely Publications

Martin Goodman founded
the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely
Publications in 1939. Goodman, a pulp-magazinepublisher who started by selling a Western pulp in 1933, expanded into the
emerging — and by then already highly popular — new medium of comic
books. Goodman began his new line from his existing company's
offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York. He
officially held the titles of editor,
managing editor, and business
manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as
publisher.

The company's first true editor, writer-artistJoe Simon, teamed up
with soon-to-become industry-legend Jack
Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain
America, in Captain America Comics #1. (March 1941)
It, too, proved a major sales hit, with a circulation of nearly one
million.

Goodman hired a teen-aged relative, Stanley Lieber, as a general
office assistant in 1939. When editor Simon left the company in
late 1941, Goodman made Lieber — by then writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee" — interim editor of
the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three
years during his military service in World
War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a
number of different titles.

Goodman began using the globe logo of Atlas, the
newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated
November 1951. This united a line put out by the same publisher,
staff, and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth
Comics to Zenith Publications, under the umbrella name Atlas
Comics.

1960s

The first comic book under the Marvel Comics brand, the science-fiction anthology Amazing Adventures #3, cover-dated
August 1961, appeared May 9, 1961 displaying a box labeled "MC" on
its cover. Then, in the wake of DC Comics'
success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
particularly with the Flash, Green Lantern, and other members of the team the
Justice League of America,
Marvel followed suit.The introduction of modern Marvel's first
superhero team, in The Fantastic Four #1, cover-dated November
1961, began establishing the company's reputation. From then until
the end of 1969, Marvel published a total of 831 comic books with
at least one new superhero story, the majority of them written by
editor-in-chief Stan Lee.

Editor-writer Lee and freelance artist Jack
Kirby's Fantastic Four, reminiscent of the non-superpowered
adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown that
Kirby had created for DC in 1957, originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to
deconstruct the superhero conventions of previous eras and better
reflect the psychological spirit of their age. Eschewing such
comic-book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first,
having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters
bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the
real world" approach, the series represented a change that proved
to be a great success.Marvel began publishing further superhero
titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Spider-Man,
Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the
X-Men (the original team consisting of
Cyclops, Jean
Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman) and Daredevil, and such memorable
antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus,
the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus. Lee and Steve Ditko generated
the most successful new series in The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel
even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand
Echh (a play on Marvel's dubbing of other companies as
"Brand Echh", à la the then-common phrase "Brand X").

Marvel's comics had a reputation for focusing on characterization
to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them. This
applied to The Amazing Spider-Man in particular. Its young
hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other
teenager. Marvel often presents flawed superheroes, freaks, and
misfits — unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in
previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like
villains and monsters. In time, this non-traditional approach would
revolutionize comic books. Writer Geoff Boucher in 2009 reflected
that, "Superman and DC
Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby's artwork
with its tension and psychedelia that
made it perfect for the times — or was it Lee's bravado and
melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same
time?"

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s,

Lee, with his charming personality and relentless salesmanship of
the company, became one of the best-known names in comics. His
sense of humor and generally lighthearted manner became the "voice"
that permeated the stories, the letters and news-pages, and the
hyperbolic house ads of that era's Marvel Comics. He fostered a
clubby fan-following with Lee's exaggerated depiction of the
Bullpen (Lee's name for the staff) as one big, happy family. This
included printed kudos to the artists, who eventually co-plotted
the stories based on the busy Lee's rough synopses or even simple
spoken concepts, in what became known as the Marvel Method, and contributed greatly to
Marvel's product and success. Kirby in particular is generally
credited for many of the cosmic ideas and characters of
Fantastic Four and The Mighty Thor, such as the
Watcher, the Silver Surfer and Ego the Living Planet, while Steve
Ditko is recognized as the driving artistic force behind the moody
atmosphere and street-level naturalism of Spider-Man
and the surreal atmosphere of Dr.
Strange. Lee, however, continues to receive credit for his
well-honed skills at dialogue and sense of storytelling, for his
keen hand at choosing and motivating artists and assembling
creative teams, and for his uncanny ability to connect with the
readers — not least through the nickname endearments he bestowed in
the credits and the monthly "Bullpen Bulletins" and letters pages,
giving readers humanizing hype about the likes of "Jolly Jack
Kirby," "Jaunty Jim Steranko,"
"Rascally Roy Thomas," "Jazzy Johnny Romita," and others, right down
to letterers "Swingin' Sammy
Rosen" and "Adorable Artie
Simek."

Lesser-known staffers during the company's growth in the 1960s
(some of whom worked primarily for Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's umbrella
magazine corporation) included circulation-manager Johnny Hayes,
subscriptions-person Nancy Murphy, bookkeeper Doris Siegler,
merchandising-person Chip Goodman (son of publisher Martin), and
Arthur Jeffrey, described in the December 1966 "Bullpen Bulletin"
as "keeper of our MMMS [[[Merry Marvel Marching Society]]] files,
guardian of our club coupons and defender of the faith".

In the fall of 1968, company founder Goodman sold Marvel Comics and
his other publishing businesses to the
Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation. It grouped
these businesses in a subsidiary called Magazine Management
Co. Goodman remained as publisher.

1970s

In 1971 the United
States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached
Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to
do a comic-book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a
three-part Spider-Man story portraying
drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's
self-censorship board, the Comics
Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the
presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant.
Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in
The Amazing
Spider-Man #96-98 (May-July 1971), without the Comics Code
seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA
subsequently revised the Code the same year.

Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and Lee succeeded him,
stepping aside from running day-to-day operations at Marvel. A
series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another
slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to
diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code achieved
moderate to strong success with titles themed to horror (The Tomb of Dracula), martial arts, (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung
Fu), sword-and-sorcery
(Conan the Barbarian,
Red Sonja), satire (Howard the
Duck) and science fiction
(2001: A Space
Odyssey, "Killraven" in
Amazing Adventures and
-late in the decade - the long-running Star Wars series). Some of these were
published in larger-format black and white magazines, that targeted
mature readers, under its Curtis
Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its
successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a
new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line.
Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in
1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard
newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size
of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 39
pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel
the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages,
offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor
discount.

In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation changed its name to
"Cadence Industries", which in turn renamed Magazine Management Co.
as "Marvel Comics Group". Goodman, now completely disconnected from
Marvel, set up a new company called Atlas/Seaboard Comics in 1974,
reviving Marvel's old Atlas name, but this lasted only a
year-and-a-half.

In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network
affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell
victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low
sales when in fact the first specialty comic-book stores resold
them at a later date. But by the end of the decade, Marvel's
fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution — selling through
those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands.

In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in
different countries, including the UK, created a superhero
specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in the
UK, and later appeared in American comics.

1980s

In 1978 Jim Shooter became Marvel's
editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter
cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly
missed deadlines. The company enjoyed some of its best successes
during Shooter's nine-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief, most notably
Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on
Daredevil. Also
under Shooter's editorial reign, Walt
Simonson revamped The Mighty
Thor and made it again a bestseller. Shooter
institutionalized creator royalties, starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced
company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and
Secret Wars; and launched a
new, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, line named New Universe, to commemorate Marvel's 25th
anniversary in 1986.

1990s

Marvel earned a great deal of money and recognition during the
comic-book boom of the early 1990s, launching the highly successful
2099 line of comics set in the future
(Spider-Man 2099, etc.) and
the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker
Clive Barker. Yet by the middle of the
decade, the industry had slumped and Marvel filed for bankruptcy amidst investigations of Perelman's
financial activities regarding the company.

In 1991 Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker Impel.
These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters
and events of the Marvel Universe. The following year, Marvel
acquired the Fleer Corporation, also known
primarily for its trading cards.

Also in the early 1990s, Marvel created Marvel Studios, devoted to film and TV
projects. Avi Arad became director of that
division in 1993, with production accelerating in 1998 following
the success of the film Blade.

In late 1994 Marvel acquired the comic-book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use
as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major
publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies,
the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major
distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors
Inc. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed,
Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with the House of Ideas —
giving the company its own section of its comics catalog
Previews.

Creatively and commercially, the '90s were dominated by the use of
gimmickry to boost sales, such as variant
covers, cover enhancements, regular company-wide crossovers
that threw the universe's continuity into disarray, and even
special swimsuit issues.
In 1996, Marvel had almost all its titles participate in the
"Onslaught Saga," a crossover that
allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters, such as
the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which Marvel
defectors Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were given permission to revamp the
properties from scratch. After an initial sales bump, sales quickly
declined below expected levels, and Marvel discontinued the
experiment after a one-year run; the characters soon returned to
the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998,
the company launched the imprint Marvel
Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by
soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe
Quesada, it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such
characters as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Daredevil.

2000s

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics escaped from bankruptcy and
again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew
from the Comics Code Authority
and established its own Marvel
Rating System for comics. The first title from this era to not
have the code was X-Force #119
(October 2001).

Marvel also created new imprints, such as
MAX (a line intended for mature
readers) and Marvel Age (developed for
younger audiences). In addition to this, the company created an
alternate universe imprint,
Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the
company to reboot their major
titles by deconstructing and updating its characters to introduce
to a new generation. The company has also revamped its graphic novel division, establishing a bigger
presence in the bookstore market. As of 2009, Marvel remains a key
comics publisher, even as the industry has dwindled to a fraction
of its peak size decades earlier.

, Stan Lee, though no longer officially connected to the company save for the title of "Chairman Emeritus", remains a visible face in the industry. In 2002, he sued successfully for a share of income related to movies and merchandising of Marvel characters, based on a contract between Lee and Marvel from the late 1990s; according to court documents, Marvel had used "Hollywood accounting" to claim that those projects' "earnings" were not profits. As of 2009. Marvel Comics' parent company, Marvel Entertainment, continues to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange as MVL. Some of its characters have been turned into successful film franchises, the highest-grossing being the X-Men film series, starting in 2000, and the Spider-Man series, beginning in 2002

In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBSsoap operaThe Guiding Light, titled "She's a
Marvel", featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper (played by
Beth Ehlers) as a superheroine named the
Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page
backup feature, "A New Light", that appeared in several Marvel
titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a
wiki on its Web site.

In late 2007 the company launched an online initiative, announcing
Marvel Digital Comics
Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues
available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription
fee.

In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which
the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring
comic-book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had
produced no suitably professional work.

On August 31, 2009, The Walt
Disney Company announced that it had agreed to acquire Marvel
Entertainment for $4 billion in cash and stock. Disney had already
owned a backlog of Marvel-related TV series since 2001, when it
bought Saban
Entertainment.

Editors-in-chief

The Marvel editor-in-chief oversees the largest-scale creative
decisions taken within the company. The position evolved
sporadically. In the earliest years, the company had a single
editor overseeing the entire line. As the company grew, it became
increasingly common for individual titles to be overseen
separately. The concept of the "writer-editor" evolved, stemming
from when Lee wrote and managed most of the line's output.
Overseeing the line in the 1970s was a series of chief editors,
though the titles were used intermittently. By the time Jim Shooter took the post in 1978, the position
of editor-in-chief was clearly defined.

In 1994, Marvel briefly abolished the position, replacing Tom DeFalco with five "group editors", though
each held the title "editor-in-chief" and had some editors
underneath them. It reinstated the overall editor-in-chief position
in 1995, installing Bob Harras. Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief in
2000.

Marvel characters in other media

Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to many other
media. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and
its sister company, Marvel Studios,
while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel
material.

Television programs

Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based
their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include
multiple series for popular characters such as Spider-Man and the
X-Men. Additionally, a handful of television movies based on Marvel
Comics characters have been made.

Per researcher Keif Fromm, Alter Ego #49, p. 4
(caption), Marvel Comics #1, cover-dated October 1939,
quickly sold out 80,000 copies, prompting Goodman to produce a
second printing, cover-dated November 1939. The latter appears
identical except for a black bar over the October date in the
inside front-cover indicia, and the November date added at the end.
That sold approximately 800,000 copies. Also per Fromm, the first
issue of Captain America Comics sold nearly one million
copies.

Per Les
Daniels in Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's
Greatest Comics (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991) ISBN
0-8109-3821-9, pp. 67-68: "The success of EC had a definite
influence on Marvel. As Stan Lee recalls, 'Martin Goodman would
say, "Stan, let's do a different kind of book," and it was usually
based on how the competition was doing. When we found that EC's
horror books were doing well, for instance, we published a lot of
horror books'".

Apocryphal legend has it that in 1961, during a game of golf,
either Jack
Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of rival DC Comics (then known as National
Periodical Publications) bragged about DC's success with the
Justice League (which had debuted in The Brave and the
Bold #28 [February 1960] before going on to its own title) to
Timely and Atlas publisherMartin Goodman. However, film
producer and comics historian Michael Uslan partly debunked the story in a
letter published in Alter Ego #43 (December 2004), pp.
43-44: Goodman, a publishing trend-follower aware of the JLA's
strong sales, did direct his comics editor, Stan Lee, to create a comic-book series about
a team of superheroes. According to Lee in Origins of Marvel
Comics (Simon and Schuster/Fireside Books,
1974), p. 16:

Marvel Original Superhero Comics of the 1960s,
http://www.storypilot.com/sf/marvels-of-the-60s.html

Genter, Robert. "'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility':
Cold War Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics", The Journal
of Popular Culture 40:6, 2007

Commentators such as comics historian Greg Theakston have
suggested that the decision to include monsters and initially to
distance the new breed of superheroes from costumes was a conscious
one , and born of necessity. Since DC distributed Marvel's output
at the time, Theakston theorizes that "Goodman and Lee decided to
keep their superhero line looking as much like their horror line as
they possibly could," downplaying "the fact that [Marvel] was now
creating heroes" with the knock-on effect that they ventured "into
deeper waters, where DC had never considered going". See: Ro,
Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American
Comic Book Revolution, pp. 86-88 (Bloomsbury, 2004)